Description: On the 50th anniversary of the implementation of Medicare, a behind-the-scenes account of the role of civil rights activists
Brief description: David Barton Smith, Professor Emeritus in Health Administration at Temple University, is the author of Reinventing Care: Assisted Living in New York City (also published by Vanderbilt University Press) and Health Care Divided: Race and Healing a Nation. He is assisting in the production of a companion documentary supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Review Quotes: "In a fascinating narrative built on historical and social science research and informed by extensive interviews, Smith documents the important role of Medicare and its implementation on the extension of civil rights and improvement in access and health care for African Americans and other disadvantaged groups. He illuminates the less appreciated role of the civil rights movement in incentivizing the momentum toward health reform. There is something new and valuable here for anyone, however well informed, to learn about the difficult evolution of the health safety net and social justice."
--David Mechanic, Rene Dubos University Professor, Institute for Health, Health Policy Research, and Aging Research, Rutgers University